#74 - Meet the Start Up Putting Data in the Hands of Every Basketball Player

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I think I think for basketball, the hardware aspect that we've gone for is to not change the game of basketball at all.

That is Eric Anderson, CEO of SiQ Basketball.

You spin the ball, you connect to your app, you can have real-time feedback, or you can go train and have a full session at the end of your run.

I love it. And like, the ability to get really personalized feedback is a thing that is relatively new at the scale that it's entering the market.

And that is Keaton Nangeville, Senior Principal at Alumni Ventures. So the SIQ basketball contains a patented— ready for this— 9D sensor embedded inside and does not affect the weight or flight of the ball. And that's me. My name is Samantha Herrick, and I'm the guide or host for this podcast. All right, let's get into our Meet the Startup today with SIQ Basketball. So SIQ Basketball is an innovative startup that has developed a smart basketball designed to help players improve their shooting skills through advanced technology and real-time analytics. So the basketball is an FIBA-approved smart basketball that looks and feels like a regular basketball but contains advanced technology to track shooting performance. SIQ was founded by Hari Hariri, a former Finnish professional basketball player. The company has gained recognition in the basketball world with endorsements from professional players like Duncan Robinson of the Miami Heat and Kayla McBride of the Minnesota Lynx. So impact and recognition. So through FIBA FIBA approval, the SIQ Basketball is the world's only FIBA-approved smart basketball, ensuring it meets regulation standards for weight and size. Users have reported 15 to 25% improvement in just weeks of using the basketball. And as of like, as their growing user base, as of September 2021, SIQ had tracked more than 2 million shots from players around the world. So SIQ Basketball aims to make advanced shooting analytics accessible to players at all levels, from professionals to youth and amateur players, potentially revolutionizing We're going to get into the nitty-gritty about the technology a little bit later, um, but a quick sneak peek is there's a patented 9D sensor embedded inside the ball that tracks over 190 data points for every shot taken. There's automatic shot detection, and then real-time feedback and detailed analytics is shot back to a smartphone app that also comes with the basketball. And I'm going to take a moment to just say, wow. So it tracks a wide range of shooting metrics like makes, misses, swishes, spin rate, shot consistency, shot distance, hotspots on the court, all the fun stuff like that. We're going to get into that again a little bit later on in the episode. Um, but the ball's technology is 99.9% accurate in tracking these stats, providing players with precise data for improvement. All right, but it's about time for me to turn my microphone off. So here's an ad and then we'll hop right into the show.

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Awesome. So I'm here with Eric Anderson of SIQ Basketball, a recent investment from the AV Sports Fund. For those seeing my face for the first time, I'm a former basketball player. This company, I remember first connecting with Eric and saying the big holiday gift when I was a kid was the Soccer Pal, which was basically a soccer ball in a net on the end of a rope you could kick to yourself. If I put myself in the shoes of a young kid now, it would be SIQ Basketball. Eric, can you give us the elevator pitch for your company?

Yeah, certainly. Thanks, Keaton. SIQ Basketball is a smart basketball app that helps basketball players of all ages skill levels improve their game through technology, gamification, coaching, and just simple tracking of metrics and practice.

Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about your origin story? I think it's a unique story about how you came to the company and then like why you decided to be part of this company.

Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, it was a no-brainer. I I came from the venture world, and I invested into the pre-seed round. I was living in Estonia at the time, and we were investing in the Nordics. And I came across a Finnish founder who was 6'8, professional basketball player, computer scientist. I called him the Finnish unicorn. And I was like, we have to, we have to invest in the smart basketball company. I grew up playing basketball. I tried the product. It was unbelievable. You spin, connect to your phone, you start shooting, it tracks make, miss, release angle, distance, 90 to 95% of what the professional analytics systems track, but at a consumer price point. Not only that, there was, there were multiple patents on the technology. And I was just like, this is an amazing opportunity. Unfortunately, in Finland, basketball is not the most popular sport. So if it was hockey, they would have had no, no problem. raising a ton of money. But I was really adamant about doing the deal. We did the deal. It was the last meeting in person before COVID So you can imagine, like, investing in a consumer hardware technology that's manufactured in Asia with a tech team in Finland and launching in America. It was a tough situation. But because of my position on the board and my passion and conviction in the business, they asked me to join as CEO. And it was a no-brainer for me. It was a great opportunity in my career to work with a company that I absolutely love. And almost 4 years later, here we are with kind of the next chapter.

That's super cool. I want to talk about kind of market trends. And I think this is especially important In an age where AI has become such a dominant thing, it may be counterintuitive to go into hardware, but why, why do you think this is such an amazing path forward with this particular application to put, put the smart sensor in the hardware?

Yeah, so, so we have very lightweight hardware that goes inside the basketball. It makes the basketball official size and weight. I think it's really easy to have to set or to build something where you can set a phone on a tripod and track things. I think those are great solutions. I don't want to say anything negative about those. There's amazing applications for that. I think for basketball, the hardware aspect that we've gone for is to not change the game of basketball at all. You spin the ball, you connect to your app, you can have real-time feedback, or you can go train and have a full session at the end. of your run or your workout. And I think the— I think that experience is what separates us from anyone else because we are a comprehensive analytics platform and gamification platform on any court in the world.

All right. So, in my head, when you think about a smart basketball, In my head, I just cannot fathom how it works, right? Like, there's gotta— like, I have— I'm not an engineer, I'm not a computer scientist, I'm not, you know, a sports scientist. So I did some research on how this basketball actually works and what the technology is. Um, so of course, the SICK basketball is a smart basketball that uses advanced technology to track and analyze shooting performance. So the SIQ basketball contains a patented, ready for this, 9D sensor embedded inside and does not affect the weight or flight of the ball. The sensor tracks about 190 data points for every shot taken. The ball uses machine learning technology. This is where the AI comes in to automatically detect and classify shots. It can identify different types of shots like catch and shoot, off the dribble, or free throws. The ball analyzes the interaction between itself and the hoop to determine makes, misses, and even swishes. So the basketball tracks a wide range of shooting metrics. Eric kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but, um, the shooting metrics it tracks is makes, misses, swishes, release angle and release time, spin rate, shot consistency, shot distance and location, hotspots on the court. Then as far as usage process. So you download the Sick app on your smartphone, you log in, enter your details, you spin the ball to activate it, and then you start shooting on a regulation hoop. Um, and you place your phone within 90 feet of where you're shooting, and then the ball automatically sends data to the app, which provides real-time feedback and detailed analytics on your shooting performance. There are some really advanced stuff that it can do as well, like shooter identification. So the ball can recognize different shooters based on their unique shot fingerprint after taking about 500 different shots. So it also can do situation analysis. So it classifies shots taken off the pass, dribble, or in a relaxed situation. And it has heat maps so it can show accuracy from different court locations. So by combining the smart basketball with the app, players can get professional-level shooting analytics and feedback to improve their game without the need for additional equipment or expensive Setups. So, um, Eric and, you know, Sick Basketball has, uh, partnered with Spalding. They're going to get into that a little bit later, but, um, there's a really cool, uh, you know, short that I had found on, uh, their YouTube page, um, where they put a, you know, a legendary free thrower, um, or like a free shooter. against the app, right? To try and see how many shots it takes him to get to perfect, right? And that's like part of the app classification. So I'm going to play that now because I think it's really fun, um, and it really helps exemplify how you actually use the technology. So, um, here's a quick short from Spalding. It's like 90 seconds, um, and then we'll get right back into the interview.

What's up guys? I'm here with Gabe McGolphin, Division 1 basketball player and free throw shooter extraordinaire. We're gonna see how many shots it's gonna take him to get 3 perfect makes. Again, on the app, a perfect make means that all of the release angle, the shot trajectory, the release speed, the rotation, everything is perfect. Then you're gonna get swishes, and then you'll receive feedback that'll either say a perfect make or perfect or something like that. So let's see how many times Time to take the game to get 3 perfect makes.

Money. Perfect. Hit the rim a little. Simply perfect. Last one, baby. A

perfect make. Got it. Took my man Gabe 6 shots to get 3 perfect makes. How many will it take you?

Yeah, I love it. And like, the ability to get really personalized feedback is a thing that is relatively new at the scale that it's entering the market. But what can you share about kind of the interaction between your ball and like the app experience, especially if I think about putting myself in the shoes of a young player, like somebody maybe middle school or early high school age?

Yeah, no, it's a great, a great perspective question. So we built the product originally for elite basketball players, top-tier players who want to improve their game. And that's, that's where the technology started. We realized, based on a few different things, is we actually have a real market opportunity for kids who are picking up a basketball for the very first time. Yeah. And so by simplifying the user experience, where we're giving you the same data, we're giving you this a better user experience because it's more simple. But by focusing on like maybe someone who will pick up a basketball and start tracking their shots from day zero, versus someone who's already— they have their favorite basketball already, or they're being told they have to play with a specific basketball. It's just a much better market opportunity for us to focus on. And then that's also helped us create a better user experience. So if you're a kid picking up a basketball for the first time, or you're a seasoned veteran, we're going to give you data based on your shot. So you pick, you start shooting, we're going to tell you, hey, there's an optimal release angle based on your height, based on your distance. This is, this is how you can improve. And then based on your skill level, we can give you personalized training where, hey, these are drills you can do to improve increasing your distance, increasing your release speed. Here's some ways you can increase your shot arc. And we have plenty of data to support our suggestions because we, we know optimal entry angles, which is something that like no one's ever been able to do before.

Yeah, that's super cool. And it's bringing the, you know, there are people who are very intuitive players and they just, they just get it. And there are people who are more analytical. And I think this This approach has something to offer anybody. You know, if you're somebody who just wants to count makes and misses and you're shooting kind of the two-handed Reggie Miller jump shot, you still get great data out of this. Tell us something unusual about your company.

Oh, that's a— there's many unusual things.

Tell us a couple.

Well, one that comes right off the top of my head is our usage patterns. So it's very seasonal. Basketball is a seasonal sport. And as we're dealing with kids who are in school and playing multiple sports, something that's unusual that it took us a little bit to figure out, in basketball season is our lowest usage time of the year.

Yeah.

Because kids are practicing and then they're going home and doing homework and they're not getting up as many shots on their own. Offseason, our usage jumps way up. So it's, that's one, that's one unusual, that's a learning that we've had about, about our users. Which I think really surprises people. Another, another really unusual thing about this business is we are creating something that's never been done before. A consumer smart ball is a relatively new idea. And so just figuring out the business model of how we educate the consumer and the customer has been, has been an amazing challenge. But as we figure things out, We can, we can point to just more rewarding experiences.

Yeah.

So when we first launched, we, we launched a $99 basketball, and we just assumed people would go download the app. But we actually made a lot of people angry because they bought a $99 basketball, and then they had to go buy an app on top of that.

Yeah.

And so by educating the consumer and adding the app with the physical product, as a bundle, our activation rate and the customer education is kind of implied and done all at once.

Yeah.

And so I think it's just like kind of figuring out those types of, those types of consumer behavior needs. And by the time, by the time we're getting ready for this next phase, I feel like we've figured out quite a bit of those. So it's just understanding the consumer is the unusual thing behind this company.

Yeah. So let's talk about recent momentum or wins. Do you have anything you can share on that front, especially as you think about continuing to really get into the market?

Yeah, so I think the— by the time we air this interview, we'll have announced that SIQ has sponsored— has a license agreement with Spalding. So we're going to be launching a Spalding smart basketball this holiday season in Q4. I think the press release goes out in about a week. So we're really excited for that. We've totally redone the app. We've added new features to the app. This is the first ball that we're launching with Spalding. There is a line of other basketball products that we're actively considering. Nothing is done yet, but this is the first all-surface basketball, indoor, outdoor. It's all black, which mimics our bestseller. The SIQ-branded bestseller but with slightly higher quality materials. But, the app itself, we're going to have coaching from elite NBA trainers who work with the biggest stars in the NBA. And, we have weekly video drops there, global competitions in the app with huge prizes, and then just general challenges and leaderboards that we've taken the next step on that product development. So, We've, we've kind of like not put the SIQ app on hold, but we've simultaneously been developing the Spaulding app. And then when it all comes together, we're really excited for, for what's going to be released within the next month.

What does working with a company like Spaulding enable for you guys? I think in the hardware space, like just ramping up production is a challenge, but like what does Spaulding enable or any other, any other partner like that scale?

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By working with Spaulding, I think it's, it's an unbelievable opportunity for us as a technology business. We get to now focus on our core business, which is technology, and we get to put our technology into a brand that is an industry leader that everyone knows. that knows how to sell, market, and distribute that product. And so if we, if we look at, if we look at just like what we can do to reach new consumers, or what they unlock on the manufacturing or supply chain side of things, for us, it's a win-win. We get to do the technology, they get to sell, we get to collaborate. And I think, I think it's an unbelievable opportunity for us as a technology.

Yeah. For any basketball, any fellow basketball nerds out there, I think you quoted me a number in diligence, but what percentage of like State basketball associations use like a TF1000 as their basketball.

Ooh, the last the last time I heard it was about 40% of states played with the Spalding basketball. But I know numerous numerous leagues around the world are Spalding. Wilson is obviously up there as well. But you know the TF1000 is is an amazing basketball. Yeah. Yeah, it's at the state level what that sets the bar for. This is the elite basketball that we want to play with.

Yeah. I don't know if other people think about exactly which basketball product they use, but I grew up adoring particular basketballs. TF1000 was one. My all-black And1 streetball was another one. That ball is now fuzzy and gray from being used outside, but When you show me that black basketball, it brings back some serious memories. So, yeah, super exciting.

Yeah, we're really hyped.

Yeah. You mentioned something around, I guess I'd say kind of a platform technology. Now, obviously, focus is a big part getting the basketball thing nailed, but tell me about other ambitions or are there sports that maybe this would apply to?

Yeah. Another great question. We have over 20 patents on the technology. And our main patent covers all recreational projectiles, which is a term that I learned once I got involved with this company, that track AI or ML events through radio frequency like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. So anything that you can put our hardware in, that wants to track any type of event. So an event, for instance, would be like make-miss. So we shoot the basketball, we can tell you if you make or miss your shot. Maybe it's catch and drop, maybe however you'd want to apply it to another sport. We have IP that protects us globally against those types of potential competitors. Yeah. Other products that this makes sense with, you know, we can definitely consider a universe where American football, soccer, volleyball, at the consumer level, there's, there's, there's other, other products we can certainly go to. And then that kind of like a more like enterprise or like B2B angle, there's like an officiating product that we can, we can do tracking inside of games. And there's other opportunities there that we haven't We haven't committed to exploring yet, but because of our technology and how we can interface as a platform to other technologies, like we could integrate with cameras for helping to detect events or track certain things. But right now we're focused on the consumer side of the business and really just launching with Spaulding this holiday season.

Yeah, a lot on your plate, but perfect segue. We like to end with your ask to our community. So the holiday season's coming up. Do you have any specific asks to our community? Hopefully, hopefully a lot of basketball fans out there, hopefully young kids getting into the game or growing their game.

Yeah, look, I mean, the easy ask is buy a basketball when, when the time is right for the basketball player in your life. We'd love to, we'd love to, you know, bring joy and a great experience to them over the holidays. And, you know, we'd love to get your feedback. on using the ball, using the product because we can make it better. Yeah, I think that's as simple as the ask has to be.

I love it. I have— I think I mentioned this a couple times, but I have a 1-year-old daughter. I'll probably be socking one away for her for when she's a little older, but I'm excited to get her her first basketball pretty soon.

We'll make sure it happens soon.

Awesome, awesome. Thank you for the time. Congratulations! We're super excited to be supporting you guys, and can't wait to watch the journey continue to unfold.

Likewise, thank you for all the help and support.

Yep. Awesome.

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